Reifen expo to host 'Future Tire' in 2016

Crain News Service report

ESSEN, Germany — Crain Communications Inc., publisher of Tire Business, is teaming up with Reifen trade show organizer Messe Essen to stage its “Future Tire” business conference during the biennial Reifen show, next scheduled for May 2016 in Essen.

“Reifen at Messe Essen will be the ideal setting for the Future Tire conference,” said Steve Crowhurst, publishing and events director at Crain Communications Ltd., the United Kingdom unit of Crain. “All the important decision takers and experts will be in Essen.”

Mr. Crowhurst pointed to the international draw of Reifen — two-thirds of exhibitors and attendees come from outside of Germany — as an “absolute success factor” for Future Tire, a series of conferences Crain has organized in Europe the past few years.

The conference is focused on factors shaping the future of the tire industry and its supply chain, including automotive market trends, environmental and safety regulations and issues around the availability and price of rubber and other key raw materials, according to the partners.

Messe Essen is hoping Future Tire will offer an attractive supporting program to the exhibitors and visitors to Reifen and the complementary exhibit, Rubber Tech Europe.

At the same time, Messe Essen and Chinese United Rubber Corp. have extended their contract for Rubber Tech Europe, which premiered at Reifen 2014, up to and including 2020.

Rubber Tech Europe focuses on equipment, processes, etc., geared for tire production.

As a result, Messe Essen is pitching Reifen as the only trade fair to “portray the entire value-added chain of the tire,” extending from the stage before the production via manufacturing and trading right up to retreading and recycling.

Reifen and Rubber Tech Europe 2016 will run May 24-27 at Messe Essen, which recently announced plans to invest $112 million to modernize the fairgrounds site.